During the Spring Crappie USA pre-tournament meeting at Patoka, the DNR Game Warden told us that putting any structure in Patoka is highly illegal. They will not tolerate it at Patoka. I guess they have their reasons. Earlier this spring they caught a team that was fishing the classic putting structure in the lake. I think it was PVC stuck in buckets. I heard that they were now banned from the lake, and they have to pull out all the structure they had in there. That was coming from the full time lake guide.

I however do not agree with you Tom. Look at Kentucky lake for example. The lake is getting old enough now that it is starving for structure and without it the quality of the fishing would be going downhill. There are also organizations that put "habitat" in lakes all over the country to increase the size and quantity of the fish in the lakes.

In Illinois, the DNR puts structure out in many of their lakes to improve habitat. Just because it is there, does not mean you are littering or baiting a hole. There is a lot to be said about habitat. Many of our lakes here in Indiana do not have enough. You can pick up maps of Patoka and see that the DNR have already put out many fish attractors in the lake when they were building it. Crappie are a very structure oriented fish, and without the habitat, the fishing definitely goes down hill.

Good Luck!

__________________
Jim Raymer
Crappieking1